Mitt Romney has given me gaffe fatigue. The other day he said, "I'm not familiar with precisely what I said, but I stand by what I said, whatever it was," and I couldn't even be bothered to stop what I was doing and make fun of him. All winter long the Massachusetts Motormouth entertained us with his admiration for the height of trees in Michigan and his love of firing people. When he offered Rick Perry a $10,000 bet and talked up his friendships with NASCAR team owners, he did more to define himself as the 1 percent than anything on his tax returns did. But lately the guy's a big snooze.
It's getting to the point where everyone has come to an understanding that nothing Mitt Romney says is meant to be taken seriously. Case in point: Romney's interview with Time's Mark Halperin. Halperin tossed him the mother of all softball questions, and Romney was barely able to foul it off. He asked, "... what specific skills or policies did you learn at Bain that would help you create an environment where jobs would be created?"
"Well that's a bit of a question like saying, what have you learned in life that would help you lead?" answered Romney. The lone specific skill he was able to come up with was "I understand, for instance, how to read a balance sheet," but that just makes him like QuickBooks, except he'd require more software updates.
Romney's inability to link his time at Bain Capital to any specific, significant attribute doesn't undercut his credentials because his message is a vague abstraction: "I understand how the economy works because I lived in it." And why is Obama a bad president? Because, says Romney, he's "someone who's never spent a day in the private sector," a statement that can't be proved false because it means absolutely nothing.
Romney's economic plan has 59 points, but a solution ain't one. Like Romney's real theory on how to fix the economy, his plan's title is an absurd abstraction: "Believe in America." When Halperin asked him how his plan would create jobs, Romney sounded like Dick Cheney did when he predicted flowers would be thrown at the feet of our soldiers as they marched into Bagdad. "You'd see a very dramatic change in the perspective of small businesses, entrepreneurs, middle-size businesses, and perhaps even some large multinationals," Romney told Halperin. "They'd say, 'You know what: America looks like a good place to invest again, a good place to take risk, a good place to hire again.'" See that? Not just change, but "very dramatic" change that will affect businesses of so many different sizes that he can barely list them all!
As Halperin discovered, Romney gets in trouble when you pull Romney's head out of the clouds and demand he get specific. It is a central Republican argument these days that federal spending is slowing the recovery. But when Halperin asked him why his four-year plan to reduce the deficit wasn't a one-year plan -- in effect, if spending is hurting us, why not stop the hurting sooner -- Romney admitted that federal spending is helping the economy.
"Well because, if you take a trillion dollars for instance, out of the first year of the federal budget, that would shrink GDP over 5 percent. That is by definition throwing us into recession or depression. So I'm not going to do that, of course," answered Romney.
Ha, ha! "Of course," he says. Halperin should know by now not to take Romney at his word. This is Romney we're talking about, who seems to get how ruinous his economic abstractions would be in real life. To paraphrase the philosopher Walter Sobchak, say what you will about the tenants of Keynesian economics, at least it's an ethos. The reason most Republicans say they're against it nowadays is because they think it refers to where Obama was born.
Romney's hopey-changy plan to create jobs explains how he can belong to a religion founded by a con artist who claimed Jesus visited America after his resurrection, though to be fair I'm not sure He isn't playing for the Jets these days. That's just a joke, folks. Not meant to be taken seriously. Kinda like every thing that comes out of Romney's mouth: blather, rinse, repeat.
Follow Jason Stanford on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JasStanford
 |
 |
|
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
“The benefits included a major policy change that would potentially end the ability of seniors to purchase cheaper prescription drugs from offshore sources.”
Weber said that the issue is not whether a deal was cut, but who cut the deal, the White House or Senate surrogates. He cited Texas Congressman Mike Burgess who said the documents describe “a sequential, planned, organized strategy for the White House to trade policy for politics.”
Are you what you are - or what? I'm not aware of too many things I know what I know if you know what I mean...
His job was to maximize profits for investors and he did that very well regardless of the effect of the employees of the companies that he worked with.
This has not one thing to do with the creation of jobs for Americans.
If you want to run America like a for profit company, fine.
The VA, get rid of it, no profit in caring for veterans, tell them to buy insurance and seek care in the private sector.
Public schools defund them. Let the private sector run schools at a profit. If you can’t afford to pay for the school, don’t have kids.
The FDA, close the door. Let the holy “Free Market” decide “winners and losers”. If your food or medication kills people, they will stop buying it.
EPA, close the odors, do away with all environmental regulations and let the free market decide what is or is not pollution.
Need Proof???
Look at "Justice" Roberts.
Performing as he promised for his seat on the bench.
Republicans are many things - but they know how to repay favors.
PLEASE.
Too many voters are buying the Romney candidacy, just because Romney isn't President Obama.
Meanwhile, no one can say with any degree of certainty who Romney really is.
Even Romney is unable to define himself.
He just knows it's his "turn" to be president.
I, for one, don't believe that to be true.
This is slo-pitch softball. Even in a friendly, family picnic softball game, this is the pitch that you'd throw to doddering old Aunt Edna, or little Tommy who's 3 years old.
The reason Romney didn't hit it out of the park is because he's not used to answering questions like that...which means he's never had a real job interview. Which, of course, surprises no one.
it's interesting to note that the very same personality characteristics that were used against john kerry (rich, stiff and uncomfortable on camera, prone to verbal gaffes, etc.) have somehow morphed into charming idiocyncracies in mr. romney.
an important point that i never see mentioned is that mr. romney, while using his non-politician status as a positive, has spent the last several decades running for office in one way or another - and usually not winning. somehow that doesn't inspire confidence.
and everyone seems to have forgotten that mr. romney's most vocal and rabid detractors were the other gop candidates he out-spent in the primaries.
When a politician answers questions in this way, we call him Romney.
The anwers are inane! And that's being positive about them.
U.S. allies, to say nothing of enemies, will run circles around this guy.
.
well, maybe that's the wrong set-up. mr. romney might fit right in with the current russian version of capitalism.
now there's irony.
In other words, a perfect candidate for today's "know nothing" Republican Party. These people are ignorant AND PROUD OF IT!!!!
"And why is Obama a bad president? Because, says Romney, he's "someone who's never spent a day in the private sector," a statement that can't be proved false because it means absolutely nothing".
If we follow Romney's logic to its obvious conclusion, then I think we can all agree that Romney will be a terrible president because he's someone who has never spent a day as President of the United States.